Integration · Microsoft 365 / Outlook
Microsoft 365 / Outlook integration: the agent mailbox for quotes and orders
ERP Agent gives your company its own agent mailbox on Microsoft 365. Reps forward customer requests from Outlook as they are; the agent reads the email and attachments, identifies the right products, brings in customer pricing and prepares a quote or sales order. Your team reviews it before it lands in your ERP, CRM or other system. Nothing to install in Outlook.
What does an Outlook enquiry look like, and what does your ERP need?
At a wholesaler or merchant on Microsoft 365, enquiries land in a shared mailbox such as sales@ or in a rep’s own inbox: a contractor’s PDF schedule, an Excel take-off, a forwarded chain with the list three replies down. The customer writes “M10 nyloc A2” or their own article code. Your ERP needs one item number, a quantity in the right unit and that customer’s price.
Outlook rules can sort that mail, but they cannot decide which product a line means. That still falls to a rep: according to our case study, a sales rep spends on average 4–7 minutes per line when creating quotes and orders by hand. For a 30-line enquiry, that is two to three and a half hours while the customer waits. That is the work quote automation and order entry automation take over.
Microsoft 365 order automation: two connections, two jobs
Both connections run through Microsoft Graph. Forwarding needs nothing from your IT team; learning from email history is optional.
| Connection | What it does | What your Microsoft 365 admin does | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent mailbox, an address such as yourcompany@erp-agent.com | Receives the requests reps forward. Microsoft Graph notifies the agent of new mail, and the draft is created automatically. | Nothing. The mailbox lives in the erp-agent.com Microsoft 365 tenant, which we run. | Sees only what reps forward; no access to your own mailboxes |
| Email history, optional, for training | Reads past requests and the quotes your team sent in reply, from a rep’s inbox or a shared mailbox. | If users cannot consent to apps themselves, a Global Administrator or Application Administrator consents once for the organisation. | Read-only (Mail.Read, Mail.Read.Shared); it cannot send mail |
Your ERP, CRM or other system is connected separately: we set up that connection for your company during onboarding, whether you run Business Central, SAP, NetSuite or any other ERP. For the same flow from any email client, see email to ERP automation.
How does Outlook quote automation work?
Forward from Outlook
On the desktop, the web or a phone, the rep forwards the customer’s email as it is, signatures and earlier replies included. Nobody tidies it up first. A request that came by phone or chat can be pasted into the web app instead.
The agent reads everything
Email body, PDF (scanned ones too), Excel, CSV, Word, images and attached .eml or .msg emails. If you open the draft while it runs, lines appear as they are matched.
It finds the customer and the products
The customer is recognised from the request and found in your ERP’s customer register, and the rep sees at once when the request leaves the customer open. Abbreviations, sizes, part numbers and customer codes are matched to your catalogue, across languages too. See part number cross-reference.
It brings in customer pricing
From the data and rules configured for your company; once your ERP is connected, from its own price logic, customer discounts included. Your team can edit any price before sending.
Your team reviews and approves
In the ERP Agent web app, every line has a match score from 0 to 100, and lines under 80 are marked, so reps check the few lines that need judgement instead of the whole list. Open a line for the reasoning or an alternative, or refine the draft in quote chat. When the rep approves, the draft is written to your ERP, CRM or other system.
Example: an enquiry forwarded from a shared Outlook mailbox
A rep at a fastener distributor forwards a contractor’s email with an Excel list from sales@ to the agent mailbox.
FW: Fixings for Riverside job (Excel attached)
- M10 x 30 hex set screw A2 x 500
- M10 nyloc A2 x 500
- DIN 912 M8 x 25 12.9 x 200
- M12 hex bolts, same length as last order x 100
| Request line | Proposed product | Qty | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| M10 x 30 hex set screw A2 | Hex set screw DIN 933 M10 x 30, A2 | 500 | 96 |
| M10 nyloc A2 | Nylon insert lock nut DIN 985 M10, A2 | 500 | 94 |
| DIN 912 M8 x 25 12.9 | Socket head cap screw DIN 912 M8 x 25, 12.9 | 200 | 95 |
| M12 hex bolts, same length as last order | Hex bolt DIN 931 M12 x 60 (alternative: M12 x 50) | 100 | 71 marked |
Illustrative example showing the format. The bolt line scores under 80, so it is marked; the rep opens it, reads the reasoning and keeps the proposal or takes the alternative.
How does the agent learn from your Outlook email history?
A rep signs in with Microsoft 365, picks their own inbox or a shared mailbox they can open, and chooses how far back to look, from one month to two years. The agent then:
- pairs each customer request with the quote your team sent in reply;
- extracts the product lines from the email and attached PDFs, and checks each product code against your current catalogue;
- emails the rep when the run is done, so your team can approve or discard the rows before they are used.
The product choices your experienced reps made for each customer’s wording then stay in the company, and new reps become productive sooner. After go-live, the agent keeps learning from the lines your team sends: the next time a customer writes the same thing, it picks the same product.
Outlook rules, Power Automate or an agent mailbox?
Rules and flows move email and data between systems. Turning a customer’s request into a correct, priced quote takes more, and that is what the agent mailbox is built for. Your existing rules and flows can stay as they are.
| What a distributor needs | Outlook rules and flows (Power Automate, Make, Zapier) | ERP Agent’s agent mailbox |
|---|---|---|
| Read the request as the customer sent it | Rules act on conditions such as sender, subject or keywords; flows can save attachments and copy fields | Reads the email body, PDF (scanned too), Excel, CSV, Word, images and attached emails |
| Turn the customer’s words into your item numbers | Matching logic your team or a consultant builds and maintains | Identifies the right products from shorthand, sizes, part numbers and customers’ own codes, across languages. There is nothing to build. |
| Put this customer’s price on every line | A lookup built into the flow | Brings in customer pricing from the data and rules configured for your company; reps can edit any price |
| Know which lines to check | Runs the steps it is configured for | A match score from 0 to 100 and the agent’s reasoning on every line; lines under 80 are marked |
| Get better with use | Changes are made by editing the rules or the flow | Learns from every line your team sends: the next time a customer writes the same thing, it picks the same product |
AI email assistants in Outlook work from what is in the inbox. A quote needs your catalogue and your customer prices, and that is where ERP Agent works.
Running Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Business Central’s built-in Copilot features are general AI assistance inside that one ERP. ERP Agent is built for distributor quoting: it identifies the right products from shorthand, part numbers and customers’ own codes in requests of several hundred lines, puts a match score and its reasoning on every line and learns from every quote your team sends. It works with Business Central, where we set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and with any other ERP. See all ERP integrations.
Where does the quote or order land?
Microsoft 365 is where requests arrive; quotes and orders land in your ERP, CRM or other system. ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week. See all integrations.
| System | Type | Reads | Writes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Business Central | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Sales quotes and sales orders |
| SAP S/4HANA | ERP integration | Products, business partners, customer prices | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| SAP Business One | ERP integration | Items, business partners, price lists | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| NetSuite | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Estimates (quotes) and sales orders |
| Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain | ERP integration | Released products, customers, trade agreement prices | Sales quotations and sales orders |
| Visma | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes and sales orders |
| IFS | ERP integration | Sales parts, customers, customer prices | Sales quotations and customer orders |
| Monitor ERP | ERP integration | Parts, customers, customer prices | Quotes and customer orders |
| Infor M3 | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotations and customer orders |
| Exact | ERP integration | Items, customers, sales prices | Quotations and sales orders |
| AFAS Profit | ERP integration | Items, debtors, price agreements | Quotes and sales orders |
| Odoo | ERP integration | Products, customers, pricelists | Quotations and sales orders |
| Sage | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Sales quotes and sales orders |
| Jeeves | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes and sales orders; confirmed values on purchase orders |
| Lemonsoft | ERP integration | Items, customers, customer prices | Quotes |
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook | Email integration | Customer requests in the agent mailbox; email history for training | Nothing is sent to customers without your team |
| Catalogue file / SFTP | File | Product catalogue from a file, from the first week | The reviewed quote or order as a file, ready to import into your system |
| Any other ERP or CRM | ERP or CRM integration | Products, customers and prices, through the connection we set up for your company during onboarding | Quotes and sales orders |
Built to fit how your sales team already works
ERP Agent is the first agentic AI layer for wholesale distribution ERP systems. With Microsoft 365, that means:
- Nothing to install. Reps forward from Outlook as they forward any email, and customers keep writing to the same addresses.
- Works on top of your ERP. No replacement project: quotes and orders land in the ERP, CRM or other system your team already uses.
- Your team stays in control. The agent prepares; a rep approves. Nothing reaches a customer without approval, and the email-history connection is read-only.
ERP Agent in numbers
- 4–7 min
- per line when a sales rep creates quotes and orders by hand, according to our case study
- 95%
- average automation across our customers
- Over 95%
- accuracy in quote-line automation at LVI-WaBeK
- Live
- with steel, HVAC and fastener distributors
Frequently asked questions
Does ERP Agent work with Outlook and Microsoft 365?
Yes. Your agent mailbox runs on Microsoft 365, and reps forward to it from Outlook on any device. The forwarding flow installs nothing in Outlook or in your tenant.
Do we need admin consent in our Microsoft 365 tenant?
Not for forwarding. Only the optional email-history connection may need it, if your tenant does not let users consent to apps themselves. A Global Administrator or Application Administrator then grants read permissions once for the organisation.
Can it use our shared sales mailbox?
Yes. Reps forward new requests from it to the agent mailbox, and the email-history connection can read a shared mailbox the rep has access to. Nothing changes for your customers: they keep writing to the same address.
Can a forwarded email become a sales order instead of a quote?
Yes. The agent prepares either a quote or a sales order. For forwarded emails, the document type follows your organisation’s setting; in the web app, the rep picks quote or order for each request. The approved draft lands in your ERP, CRM or other system: in Business Central, for example, directly as a sales quote or sales order.
Does it work if we run Business Central or another ERP?
Yes. ERP Agent integrates with Business Central, SAP, NetSuite, Visma, IFS, Sage and any other ERP or CRM. We set up the connection for your company during onboarding, and you can start with a catalogue file the same week. The agent mailbox works the same whichever ERP you run.
Does anything reach a customer without our approval?
No. The agent prepares the quote or sales order, a rep reviews and approves it, and the approved document is written to your ERP, CRM or other system. Your team sends it to the customer as it does today.
How long does a forwarded email take?
A typical request takes 3–8 minutes, and a request of several hundred lines about half an hour, against 4–7 minutes per line by hand according to our case study. If a rep pastes a request of up to about 50 lines into the web app and picks fast mode, the draft is ready in 1–3 minutes.
How is our email data handled?
ERP Agent is GDPR-compliant, and models run with zero data retention. Before setup, we agree which data the agent needs and which systems it can access. See security.
Related
- ERP integrations for AI quote and order automation, on any ERP system
- Email to ERP: customer requests to approved quotes and orders
- AI quote automation for distributors and wholesalers
- Order entry automation for distributors: customer POs to sales orders
- AI quote and order automation for Business Central
- AI quote and sales order automation for SAP S/4HANA
Let’s look at your quote workflow
See a forwarded Outlook request become a draft
Bring a few real customer emails. We’ll walk through the agent mailbox, the review screen and what, if anything, your Microsoft 365 admin needs to do.
- Your requests and product catalogue
- Your pricing and review process
- A clear scope for the next step
Lauri Pelkonen
Founder & CEO
Book a 30-minute call Request a demo by emailOr use the address directly